Your chance to wipe out a bad mechanic
 

OK... it's you're chance. You get to wave your wand and pick one bad mechanic and erase it from the minds of the entire country of umpires.

Do you pick BU's who have to go remind the new F1 that there's a runner on 2nd, 1 out?

Do you pick umpires who run around the field with the DDB signal, holding it there until they get to the base they're protected to?

Do you pick PU who has to go chat with the crowd between half-innings?

Do you pick the PU who yells PLAY after every foul ball so loudly and so late that he's nearly caused illegal pitches?

Or something else entirely - what's you're umpire pet peeve you wish you could fix?

Me ... I'm going with the first one, wishing I had 4 wishes...

I don't have a problem with this one as long as the umpire isn't running around like a chicken with a broken wing.

I don't get four choices?

For some reason the first one irritates me the most.

The other one I don't like is the PU who never signals play.

PU who calls strike and then comes out to me on the appeal. :(
________
Class Action Settlement

BU's who signal&announce the number of outs to the defense.

"31" instead of "3 balls, 1 strike!"

Or how about the PU screaming "foul ball" when it goes 40 feet over the fence?

Removing my mask with my right hand (20+ years of a catcher habit is hard to break)

Or...the PU that always signals foul tip when the batted ball is actually a foul ball.

I do that and won't change. I tried, not comfortable with it, not changing it. I'll take the ding and move on. If that is the biggest flaw in my game, I'll take it.;)

Mostly when it is the over the home run fence!!! :eek:

My wish is to end the swinging third strike - pull the bow and bang 'em out. That is the one that puts me over the edge.

Or the other side of the coin, a BU who responds to a player's ask.

And who signal foul balls, especially prematurely.

And signal the count when not announced by PU.

Ugh yes. And PU's who signal or call foul ball prematurely.

Out of the four you listed, this would probably be the one I'd pick, but I'd expand it to include anyone who spends too much time chatting it up with players, coaches, and spectators.

If I were picking one of my own, I'd say it would be umpires who want to use baseball mechanics during softball games. Or maybe the slow pitch umpires who keep calling pitches "deep", "flat", or "plate", using the infamous double fist pump immortalized by piano playing umpires all over the world. Or slow pitch umpires working solo who don't move out from behind the plate except to grab their umbrella from the backstop when it starts to rain. Yes, I saw that this year.

I've been wanting to ask a related question for a while now, and this kinda jarred my memory. I've worked with a bunch of people who want to signal outs all the time, using what I refer to as the "baseball signal" for outs, with both arms out to your sides flashing the corresponding fingers for outs. You can see a lot of that during the LLWS. I'm not saying it's a formal baseball signal, but that's what I tell rookies when they start flashing that at me during games. Me personally, I prefer a discreet signal between my partner and me if there is a question as to the number of outs. If I get a 1-2-3 inning, I'm not flashing outs any time. What do you guys do?